I was wondering, is there any chance that this is gonna be fixed anytime soon? I mean, as amusing as it is to watch Faendal get one-shotted by Falmer over and over again, it does get kinda tiring after a while as his skills never increase to match mine, meaning he's kinda pointless now as I am more than ten levels higher than I was when I made him my follower.

Get a new follower? Don't think this is on Bethesda's "to do list" to be honest.

And that means doing no exploring until max level so I can get a max level companion, yet how can I get to max level without exploring?

No that doesn't mean that at all. There are many followers in this game. You can get a high level follower if you choose to.

It does, actually, as a follower matches the level you were when you first entered the area that follower inhabits. So, I could go meet Uthgerd at level 10, recruit her at level 50, and she'd still be level 10.

You need to talk to her first. I have done a [censored]load of exploring and still haven't found all followers, not even close. So explore away. There is nothing stopping you.

Yeah, but I like Faendal, he's cool, why should I have to ditch him for a less cool follower just cos Bethesda overlooked this glaring issue?

People evolve in different ways. He's just not strong enough anymore. Send him home and find a new one. That's what I like to think.

Hmmm, not that I have much in the way of a choice at the moment, but hopefully Bethesda will address this in the next patch.

Hopefully they will focus on more important things as this is just a gameplay choice by Bethesda and not a bug. And the game would be pretty easy with to people who's level 50 IMO.

Use the staff of Wabbajack on your companion until he transform in a chicken. When the effect wears off he will come back with levelled stats. I use this method on lydia and works.

I know there's a glitch to get them to jump to your level, but it escapes me right now...

Thanks, I'll try that once I get the staff

Heres a very detailed guide on the process:

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1339131-guide-how-to-level-your-follower/

Go this this website, and you'll see what the level is for the different followers. I don't remember if it's in the page that comes up, or the Google spreadhseet, but it's there somewhere.


http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Followers

Just looked at that link. So the Fortify One-handed necklace and gauntlets do nothing for Lydia? Crap. Spent that money for nothing on the gauntlets. Guess I needn't worry about enchanting better ones later either.

Nice to know about the console commands for PC though. Makes no sense that they don't level with you, imo. I tend to only use Lydia, but might pick someone else up. And it looks like they are set when you enter their zone and not when you talk to them/ask them to follow you. Would have made more sense to set their stats at the time you take them on as a follower.

this works, but you need to hit em with your fist, not wait till the effect wears off.Make sure you are not wearing gauntlets before you hit em just in case you have the unarmed perk.I did it on Kharjo and now he is Lv.81 along with me and I find it does not make the game any easier it stays about the same, it just tuffens your companion up so as to be able to take the same punishment as you along with dealing some decent damage.Now it's like a game while we are out and about, I have to try and kill the bandit before Kharjo and (in my own head) Kharjo is tryen to kill the same bandit before me.

You can also make Lydia (or any follower) essential, that way she won't die. I had a hard time trying to kill things with my chain lightning spell because it used to jump to her and kill her.

One other strange thing I've noticed is that only a few followers have perks, most have non. You can check it for yourself in the CK. Considering that Faendal is actually a trainer in archery he should have some relevant perks to go with that. But no, zip and nothing.

There's a Google spreadsheet showing the max skills/levels of all the potentual followers.
If your playing on a PC there are a few thing you can do. First being a series of console commands which will reset the follower to your level. This method works as long as you are at or below the max level the follower can be at.

Stream workshop has a number of patches that relate to followers. I Installed one which claims to only fix the follower not leveling with you and remove their level cap.

I still made Lydia "essentual" as she has a bad habbit of jumping in front of me just in time to get hit by one of my power attacks!

(if your playing on a 360/PS3 the Wabbajack is the only cure)